Home again, home again, jiggety jig…

Well, I’m back and I seem to have brought back some sunshine – not as warm as California sunshine but very welcome nontheless. I managed to twist my knee playing tennis on the my last day so the 10 hour journey home in my cramped seat, followed by a 3 hour drive home to Dorset was really uncomfortable and painful. It was a price worth paying though for the wonderful time I spent in Venice, Los Angeles.

It’s hard to pick out a highlight as I have so many happy memories but certainly one great day was spent at the J.Paul Getty Museum where we went to see an exhibition by the Italian sculptor Bernini, but also saw an astonishing exhibition of photographs by a German photographer called August Sander, which I thought was truly magnificent. Here are some photographs which #1 son and I took of the museum and gardens.

I also made a pilgrimage with my very patient friend, Claire, to Paper Source and stocked up on very lovely paper so expect a new burst of bookbinding activity!

I went to a party at the home of the composer Michael Brook and his wife, Julie. Michael writes wonderful music , including the scores for the movies ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and ‘Into the Wild’. He showed me a beautiful book about the work of Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler whose Art Deco bookbindings are absolutely exquisite and very inspiring. I found the book on Amazon and have ordered it, I’ll show you some photographs of these fantastic leather bindings, when it arrives.

Claire and her husband, Colin and I went to a great restaurant in Culver City called ‘Vinoteque‘. We had a great meal which was also a tutored wine tasting, comparing Old World and New World wines. The food was tailored to match each wine and it was so interesting to see how the wines complemented and added to the wonderful food. The wine tasting was followed by the US equivalent of a ‘pub quiz’. Astonishingly, our team, ‘The True Brits’ came second and we won a $10 voucher towards a future visit!

Anyway, I’m back now and I’m trying hard to catch up on the blogging front. I’m starting to get round all the blogs I normally visit but it’s a slow process. What with dodgy knees, unpacking, laundry and jet lag, it’s all been a bit mad. I found today, I had been tagged by Kim over at Laketrees. Actually she was sent three tags by Mariuca@Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery but I’m actually only going to do one today. The easiest one (and I think the most fun one). It’s called the Handbag Tag, and in Kim’s words:

The Handbag Tag is from ECL and here are the rules.
Find a safe quiet place free of significant others, nosey meme makers, priests, nuns, all things religious and men in general. (If you’re a guy just reverse this process to male and tell us about your wallet, tool box, briefcase or metro sexual accessory.)
1. Dump the contents of your handbag in a pile.
2. Take a photo of your handbag and the contents.
3. Be brave and ‘splain to your fellow bloggers what lurks inside the handbag.
4. Tag others who might want to embarrass themselves.
5. Answer these questions:
Describe the contents of your handbag. See my list below.

SO MUCH STUFF! My only excuse is that I haven’t had time to empty out the holiday stuff and I don’t normally carry a lot of those things around. No wonder that one of my shoulders is lower than the other :-)

What’s the most important thing in your handbag? My iPhone
What’s the most embarrassing thing in your handbag? Too many pens, pencils and note books! Too much everything!
What’s the smallest thing in your handbag? Hair tie
Is there anything illegal in your handbag? No, although I notice that the pharmacy no longer sells the brand of mossie repellant I like – I think it probably contains something illegal…

So there you have it, I’m going to tag all my commentators, male and female. Show us your handbags, purses, briefcases, wallets, holdalls whatever.

I dare you!

PS You may notice that the menu at the top of my blog is looking a bit untidy. I have expanded the tutorial page to include a gallery of all my books (130 in the slide show I’m afraid!) as I realised that readers who were coming to my blog following ‘bookbinding’ links were probably hard pressed to actually find any, so I decided to include the gallery. Now just need to sell some of the buggers!

So sorry about your hurt knee and the miserable time it gave you on the way home. Take good care of it!

I am so looking forward to seeing all the new books you’ll make from the beautiful paper.

The photos of the museum and garden are stunning. I will have to try and get there when I go visit friends in L.A. Dh will be more interested in Vinoteque, I’m sure. ;>

I blanched when I saw the tag. You can dare me all you want, but I don’t think I’ll be playing this one…LOL! You think your shoulders are uneven? I’ve already booked surgery for my poor shoulder for when I hit 50.

Glad you got home safe and sound apart from your gammy knee. You didn’t mention in your blog that you twisted your knee while we were beating a younger, fitter twosome and you were reaching for a shot that someone half your age would have missed! I hope you are suitably proud of me for posting this comment. Next I shall post a blog thanks to your excellent tutorial. Great pics of The Getty.

DP – it wouldn’t fit! As I was staying in my ex’s apartment there were many things I liked and wanted to bring back – rugs, glassware, sofas, plasma TV, the purple velvet bedspread, the garden furniture etc etc etc. Damn BA’s baggage allowance….

Teresa – you will love the Getty AND Vinoteque, I guarantee. As soon as I finish laundry etc and looking for the garage door key which has imexplicable disappeared during my vacation, I ma getting stuck into books – making AND selling!

70s – Looking forward to seeing your bag contents! I keep deciding to only buy small handbags so I carry less but they keep creeping up in size…
Went to docs yesterday, but of course every tweak and test the doctor did caused no pain so we are just ‘waiting and seeing’ for a week. Knee is still unstable and not right but can’t pin down what the problem is :-(

Claire!! – well done you. Our blogging lessons have not been in vain!
As for modesty, I would be perfect if I wasn’t so modest :-)
Keep me posted re. the film – I shall post all about your cameo appearnce in due course… x

SW – Thank you, it is such a gorgeous place, it’s hard not to take good pics! As for the modesty issue – see above!
Knee improving but still dodgy – good luck with ice hockey, wishing you lots of success this season :-)

The post was very refreshing. Although I have to admit that I carry too many pens, pencils and little notebooks. I am so obsessed with stationery that I end up carrying too many of them all the time. Hope your knee is better and I’d wait for your new books:)